Skip to main content

Provine Service Station

One of the more notable attractions along historic US Route 66 are the service stations that dotted the landscape along the length of the route. It may be due to the allure of the old road, or the classic roadside architecture, nostalgia for days gone by, or even the cast of characters who worked at the old service stations. Just east of Weatherford, Oklahoma in the small town of Hydro is the Provine Service Station, more famously known as Lucille's Service Station.


The Provine Service Station was built by Carl Ditmore in 1929 in a rural area about a 1/2 mile south of Hydro along historic US Route 66. Rural service stations like the Provine Service Station began springing up across the country in the late 1920s in response to increasing automobile travel. The building style of these rural stations was convenient for the traveler to get gasoline, pay the attendant, and go on their merry way.  Like other rural mom-and-pop owned and operated service stations of the time, this one was built with the living quarters on the second story, while operating the station downstairs. The Provine Service Station was built in the Bungalow Craftsman style with an open service bay supported by tapered piers and vintage gas pumps.

The service station was renamed Provine Station in 1934 when it was bought by W.O. and Ida Waldrop. At the time, a small motor court was also built next to the service station. In 1941, the Hamons family took over the operation of the station and Lucille Hamons ran the business for 60 years. Lucille, who quickly became known for her generosity and friendly assistance to motorists, earned the nickname "Mother of the Mother Road."

In 1971, the completion of Interstate 40 cut the service station off from direct access to the new highway, but Lucille kept the station running until the day she passed away on August 18, 2000. She had a beer cooler installed, which served the residents of nearby Weatherford, which was a dry town, along with the students of Southwest Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. While the service station is no longer in operation, the outside of the service station has been restored. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, the service station continues to attract passers-by, tourists, and Historic US Route 66 enthusiasts from around the world. There is also a Route 66 themed restaurant in Weatherford called Lucille's Roadhouse in ode to the Mother of the Mother Road.




Site Navigation:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...